The Church has somehow managed to go almost two thousands years before noticing an interesting passage in Romans. It is amazing that such an important passage could be hidden from Christian eyes for so long. In Romans 11:17-18 Paul says: “And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” The root is none other than the Messiah (Rev. 22:16), and the tree is Israel, as is obvious from this passage and from the rest of the Bible.
It may be a little shocking for us to realize that we Christians have a Jewish family tree. For almost two millennia the Church has tried to chop down the tree of Israel, not realizing that she herself is grafted into the tree and somehow even supported by it. What insanity! For most of these centuries the Church even suffered the delusion that she is the olive tree. What pride and arrogance – the very thing Paul is warning against.
So, we Christians have roots. The olive is a very fruitful tree and one of the longest living trees on earth. Some think that the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane were alive when Christ was there. We have a heritage, and that heritage is inseparably linked with Israel, the land and the people. Let us look at some implications of this heritage.
A TREE OF LIGHT
The olive tree is a tree of light. In ancient times when a person wanted light he didn’t just flip the switch or screw in a bulb. He went out, pressed some olives and poured the olive oil into a little clay lamp. When the lamp was lit there was light. It was only one candlepower but it was certainly better than living in the dark.
All this illustrates something very important about our heritage. We belong to the light. The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:12, that the Father has “…qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” We didn’t do it, but the Father did it for us because of his great love. Through the Messiah Jesus (Yeshua), he grafted us into the light tree.
When the Apostle John was very old he reflected back on his life decades before with Jesus. Here is what he remembered: “This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:5-7).
Since we are grafted into the light tree we must avoid the shadows. When we walk in the shadows we break fellowship with God and with his dear family. When we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another and the forgiveness of sins.
A TREE OF REVELATION
Along with light comes revelation. Through Jesus we have been grafted into the revelation tree. The True Light is now shining. It is a shame that sometimes we seem to have so little of this revelation today. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint…”
When I was a small child I used to wonder why some churches were abandoned and the buildings were falling in. Now I understand that these churches simply ran out of revelation. Think of what revelation did for the early church. Lets use our imaginations a bit. Perhaps one day in that early church a young man may have stood up and said, “Brothers, the Lord has given me a revelation.” The brothers may have said, “That’s wonderful Paul, please share it!” Paul may have proceeded with that excited group: “Brothers, you may not believe this, but the Gentiles are going to become fellow heirs with the Jews in the gospel” (Eph. 3:2-6).
We can imagine that with this, Paul may have been greeted with embarrassed silence. One of the Jewish elders may have chided and said, “Brother Paul, now you have just gone too far.” But had he really gone too far?
Can we even imagine what the last two thousand years would have been like had Paul not received and acted upon this glorious revelation? Because of it, the gospel has gone out to all nations and salvation has come to each of us.
In our churches today we do not need new programs. We need a new revelation of God. We need to pray for each other just as Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-18, that our spiritual eyes might be opened and that we might receive that life-giving revelation.
A TREE OF HEALING
In ancient times olive oil was used for healing. Oil soothed and mollified the skin and was thus a healing agent. When the Good Samaritan found a wounded man, he poured on oil and wine (Luke 10:34). Wine, of course, was the basic antiseptic of the ancient world.
This use of olive oil for healing is probably reflected in James 5:14-15. The writer says: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
Here we have God’s pattern for the saints. When we are really sick we need to call for the elders of the church. They need to come, anoint us with oil and pray for our healing. This does two things. It puts us under the authority of God’s local designated leadership, and it puts the pressure on that leadership to pray the prayer of faith. Healing is the “children’s bread” as we see in Matthew 15:26. Jesus spent a good part of his ministry just healing the sick. I would estimate that at least a third of his time was spent in this way. In Matthew 10:8, he also committed this same ministry to his followers.
A TREE OF HOLINESS AND HOLY RELATIONSHIP
In ancient times they made soap out of olive oil. In fact, they are still doing it today on a commercial scale in the city of Nablus (Shechem). Soap speaks of cleansing for the flesh, and the picture may be carried over into the spiritual realm with the concept of holiness. The Bible says that we should pursue holiness, “…without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb.12:14).
It is very interesting that in the account of Solomon building the Temple, we read that he built the doors of the inner sanctuary of olive wood (1 Ki. 6:31). It is doubly interesting that in that Holy of Holies, the cherubim covering the Ark of the Covenant were also made of olive wood (1 Ki. 6:23). This speaks of a most holy relationship.
Through Jesus we have become part of a holy heritage. The road to Zion is a holy road (Isa. 35:8-10) and soon the unclean will no longer walk upon it.
A TREE OF ANOINTING
There is a last thing about the olive tree. It is a tree of anointing. In biblical times kings and priests were commonly anointed for the Lord’s work. They were anointed by the means of olive oil poured upon their heads. Today, every believer is meant to be an anointed one – a spiritual king and priest before God (Rev. 1:6). We are grafted into the tree of anointing.
One thing we should remember about the anointing is that it is rather messy. The Hebrew word “anointed one” which we translate “Christ,” means one smeared with oil. When Aaron and his sons donned the beautiful garments of the priesthood, garments designed by God himself, all Israel must have stood in awe at their beauty. Moses promptly came up to Aaron and poured the anointing oil out on Aaron’s head (Lev. 8:12). In Psalm 133:2, we get a full description of this: “… precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.” Aaron was a holy mess!
Today we should not be afraid of God’s anointing that is now available to us through the Holy Spirit. That anointing destroys the yoke of bondage (Isa. 10:27). We should get all of it we can because we are going to need it. The Bible speaks of a day when gross darkness will cover the earth and its people (Isa 60:2). The passage tells us that at that time the light will dawn upon God’s chosen ones. This is also pictured for us by Jesus in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). They went out into the dark night to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. What was the difference between them? They all had lamps. There was oil in their lamps. They also had their lamps lit.
However, five of them had an abundance of oil – extra vessels full of it. We can surmise by this that in the last days we will need all the anointing, or the Holy Spirit, that we can get. We need to be filled with the Spirit as we are commanded (Eph. 5:18). Also we need to walk in the Spirit as we are also commanded (Eph. 5:16). This is the heritage of those grafted into the olive tree.
There is much, much more to learn about the olive tree. Let us pray that God will give us eyes of understanding that we may fully appreciate our spiritual heritage.
– Jim Gerrish
This updated article is offered courtesy of Bridges For Peace, and was first published November, 1999.